De Rervm Natvra Constantivm Scientia, Principiis Et Affectionibvs Commvnibvs, Dispvtatio

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A decorative drop cap 'S' features an intricate floral and scrollwork design.AS SOON AS I BEGAN TO DEVOTE MY EFFORTS TO STUDY,
Magnificent and distinguished man, I always chose for myself instructors to guide my learning who were excellent at following the best method for making progress in letters, and who also strove with the greatest effort to ensure that those they educated held to that same method. I approved of their opinion at all times to such an extent that, as soon as I had learned by reason to distinguish what was right, I inscribed it upon my mind, nor have I ever felt otherwise until now. That thought, fixed in my mind, upon the completion of my studies in the humanities, drove me to this: that when I had heard from all the most learned men, and those most practiced in prescribing the best mode of learning, that it was highly approved that studious adolescents, not yet possessing a fully mature age, should be ordered to devote themselves to the study of Philosophy before aspiring to take up Law and the higher disciplines, I should embrace it as soon as allowed. And, not to go on at length, I have found not only that this method of progressing in the sciences has caused me no harm, but that it has often been of no small use in difficulties concerning the most serious matters of law. For when many questions in philosophy were discussed regarding things difficult to understand, and far removed from the custom of the senses and the speech of men, which it was necessary for me to have learned and to have grasped by intelligence for the purpose of disputation, I achieved this: that while my mind was being formed by the understanding of those things, it also obtained knowledge of difficult and involved questions in law. Clearly, in no different manner than [in a contest] with bears and boars that are long and much exercised, [men] are made firmer for entering more eagerly into the same contest with lions. For, just as Philosophy, so too the knowledge of forensic matters includes many things weighed down by obscurity, to the knowledge of which it proceeds along the same path, namely from things anticipated, it uses reasoning and comparisons, and in comparing and reasoning, it uses the subtlety and skill of the mind in the same way as Philosophy. And although the excellent instruction of my Teachers, most distinguished men, was forming me for these tasks, I still felt that I owed no small part of it to Philosophy; when I compared the strength of my own mind with the industry of others who were my equals in the same discipline, and remembered what I had been taught in Philosophy: that the same thing happens by comparison to our intelligence for investigating the knowledge of the sciences, as does light to the eyes for seeing; just as a torch joined to sight perfects the keenness of the eyes for viewing things, so the acuteness of our mind is sharpened and increased by the addition of each science for contemplating whatever things there may be. And by this reasoning, I understood that Bartolus Bartolus de Saxoferrato, a famous 14th-century jurist., a most excellent jurisconsult, was surpassed in subtlety by his student Baldus Baldus de Ubaldis, another renowned jurist and student of Bartolus., who was most skilled in the same science; because, as Jovius Paolo Giovio, a Renaissance historian. (an excellent writer of history) left in writing, he had joined Philosophy with the science of Law. By his example, since the reason of prudent men had already long ago impelled me toward this opinion, I was so confirmed in my mind that, although I saw Philosophy deserted by many, I could not be moved from the plan I had undertaken, of learning Philosophy before the science of Law. For I thought to myself how others, perhaps relying on the great strength of their mind, or because of their more mature age, might neglect the study of Law, just as Themistocles once neglected the art by which he might have remembered all things A reference to the anecdote where Themistocles refused to learn the art of mnemonics, preferring to learn the art of forgetting, as he had too much in his head.. I decided that I, who possessed neither the same mind nor the same age, should by no means use their example; rather, I judged that the strength of my mind should be amplified by such an excellent science, and that the years of my youthful age should be adorned by it.